Everything you need to know about the relationship between Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Charles

The love story of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles spans almost 50 years, but their journey to romance was hardly a conventional one.

Years after first locking eyes in the early 1970s, the longtime friends struck up an unlikely relationship that would take a romantic turn while they were both married to other people – Camilla to Andrew Parker Bowles and Prince Charles to Princess Diana. News of their covert love affair was a scandal for the British monarchy, especially when Prince Charles announced that he would be divorcing Diana.

The public backlash was swift and then magnified as the world mourned Princess Diana’s untimely passing in 1997.

February 1973: Prince Charles returned to the Royal Navy and Camilla got engaged.

Prince Charles failed to propose before heading back to sea after months of courtship, and reportedly tired of waiting, Camilla accepted the proposal of an army cavalry officer named Andrew Parker Bowles.

July 1973: Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, setting the stage with a platonic relationship with Charles.

Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesCamilla married Andrew Parker Bowles.

After Parker Bowles tied the knot that July, she and her husband developed a close friendship with Prince Charles over the next couple of years, according to People magazine. Prince Charles was even named godfather to her son Sam.

1986: Prince Charles and Camilla began an affair.

According to Prince Charles’ biography, he and Camilla reportedly began having an affair in 1986, although some sources contest that their off-and-on physical relationship started somewhere from 1978-1979.

November 1992: “Camillagate” happened.

In the winter of 1992, the public heard the intimate and highly embarrassing details of a secretly recorded 1989 phone call between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, in which he said he would love to be reincarnated as her “knickers” or her tampon. The fallout of the scandal was dubbed “Camillagate” by the press.

December 1992: Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated.

Shortly after “Camillagate” made headlines, Prime Minister John Major confirmed that the Prince and Princess of Wales had separated. Their split raised questions about Prince Charles’ future relationships since as the king, he was not permitted to divorce and remarry in the Church of England at that time.

June 1994: Charles publicly admitted to having affair.

Following months of speculation, Prince Charles spurred public backlash when he finally admitted to being unfaithful during an interview with documentary filmmaker Jonathan Dimbleby. When Dimbleby asked him if he was “faithful and honorable” during his marriage to Princess Diana, he said, “Yes, absolutely. Until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried.”

While he didn’t specifically name Camilla as his lover, he called her “a great friend of mine,” and said that she “will continue to be a friend for a very long time.”

November 1994: A biography of Charles confirmed that Camilla was the other woman.

January 1995: Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles divorced.

The announcement that Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles were planning to divorce set off a media firestorm with speculation that Prince Charles and Diana were next.

Buckingham Palace sought to put the rumours to rest by releasing that a statement that, “There is no truth in reports which state that it has been agreed that a divorce should take place or that there have been discussions about a financial settlement between the parties.” However, the Prince and Princess of Wales would divorce the next year.

August 31, 1997: Princess Diana died in a tragic car accident.

Neary a year after the former couple signed their divorce papers, Princess Diana died during a car accident in Paris. Amidst the outpouring of public grief and mourning, Prince Charles travelled to Paris to bring Princess Diana’s body back to England and temporarily put his campaign to publicly introduce Camilla as his girlfriend on hold.

June 1998: Camilla reportedly met Prince William for the first time.

After the public’s emotional response to Princess Diana’s passing, Camilla and Prince Charles tried to keep their relationship out of the public eye while trying to get the royal family to warm up to it.

Prince William and Prince Harry were resistant to meet Prince Charles’ new love interest at first, and Prince Harry reportedly did not come along to the initial introduction in 1998. And while they invited Camilla to Prince Charles’ 50th birthday that year, the Queen was notably not in attendance, which many took as a snub to her son’s relationship.

January 1999: Camilla and Charles were photographed together in public as a couple.

ROTA/Getty ImagesPrince Charles and Camilla were photographed for the first time as an official couple in 1999.

Camilla and Charles started 1999 off on a fresh foot as they took their relationship public for the first time. The pair was photographed leaving Camilla’s sister’s birthday party at the Ritz Hotel in January.

August 1999: Camilla reportedly accompanied Prince Charles and his sons on a trip to Greece.

It appeared that Prince William and Prince Harry were starting to warm up to their future stepmother in the summer of 1999. The foursome reportedly took a family trip to Greece, seeming to signal that things were becoming more serious.

August 2003: Camilla and Charles moved in together.

When Camilla and Charles moved into Clarence House together in the summer of 2003, the Royal Palace quickly issued a statement letting their constituents know that no taxpayer money had been used to decorate the home.

February 2005: The couple announced their engagement.

The longtime couple announced their engagement on February 10, 2005, immediately fuelling speculation about Parker Bowles’ new title, specifically if she would be known as Queen or Princess Consort in the event that Prince Charles ascended the throne, and whether she would take the title of Princess of Wales, the name given to the late Princess Diana, in the meantime.

Sidestepping any potential controversy, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the Queen was gifting her new daughter-in-law the title of Duchess of Cornwall and that she’d be known as Princess Consort, not Queen Camilla if Prince Charles became king.

April 2005: The longtime couple made it official.

Hugo Burnand/Pool/Getty Images35 years after they first met, they got married.